Devolved regions ‘politely entertained but not listened to’ during pandemic

By Jonathan McCambridge (PA)

Devolved administrations felt they were “politely entertained but not really listened to” by Whitehall during the Covid-19 pandemic, Stormont’s former finance minister has said.

Conor Murphy told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that there had been a “frenzy” to secure PPE from China during the early part of the pandemic as he described how his attempt to make a joint order with Ireland floundered.

Module five of the public inquiry is examining procurement issues.

Last year, Mr Murphy had been unable to give evidence in person to the inquiry when it visited Belfast during a separate module as he had been advised by doctors to rest because of illness.

Appearing in London on Wednesday, Mr Murphy described concerns in 2020 that central government in London would not be able to supply enough PPE for devolved areas.

He told the inquiry: “PPE was proving extremely difficult to acquire. The bulk of it was made in the Far East and that presented logistical difficulties.

“But also the fact that all countries across the world were basically going to similar buyers to try and secure material.

“It almost had become a frenzy in trying to procure PPE.

“The Treasury had undertaken to buy that for all parts – for Scotland, for Wales, for ourselves and for England.

“But given the difficulties that they were having in securing material, were also encouraging us to encourage local businesses to repurpose and supply us with material and to explore options ourselves for procuring PPE across the world.”

Mr Murphy said there had been a sense that it would be better if the devolved areas were given access to resource to buy their own PPE.

He said: “In the intensity of the procurement exercises that were going on, then there was a concern that the further you are from the centre, the less your needs are heard or provided for.

“I think that was the same feeling for Scotland and Wales and that was the sense from our health departments that they had some dissatisfaction with how things were being procured and what was being procured and how much was intended for our specific uses.”

Asked about engagement with central government, he said: “As a finance minister and listening to the experience of other ministers in the Executive and other ministers in other devolved governments, generally we had the sense of being politely entertained but not really listened to in most matters that we brought to central government and Whitehall.

“I think that kind of sense of how we were treated permeated right across Scotland, Wales and ourselves.”

The inquiry was then shown a letter Mr Murphy had sent to an Irish government minister in 2020 about a potential joint PPE order which did not proceed.

At the time Mr Murphy had faced criticism for claiming a joint order for PPE had been made with the Irish Government, only to later announce it had fallen through.

He told the inquiry: “I think all administrations had people on the ground in China trying to secure orders on behalf of their administration.

“Where there was already collaboration taking place between the two administrations and we felt IDA (Ireland’s foreign direct investment agency) was further ahead in perhaps procuring.

“We had discussed with them the possibility of adding an order from Northern Ireland into that and having a joint procurement exercise.

“This was a very rapidly moving situation. This was changing not just day by day but hour by hour in relation to what was happening in China.

“There were a large number of orders which had been diverted where people had come in with larger chequebooks.

“It wasn’t just ourselves competing in this field. A lot of countries internationally were competing on the ground in China for PPE.”

He added: “We had tried to develop a joint order, we were agreeing we would do that.

“The IDA were in the lead on the ground in terms of their contacts.

“They then were of the impression they could only get enough to satisfy their own needs, they couldn’t get the additional amount of order that we had asked them to include in ours.

“We concluded then that that wasn’t going to be the case and that our people on the ground for the Northern Ireland bureau in Beijing would pursue their own contacts and try and secure supply for ourselves.”

A Northern Ireland specific order for PPE from China was agreed later in 2020.

Screengrab of Stormont's former finance minister Conor Murphy giving evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.